CBR: Marz and Seeley are the Bearers of the "Witchblade"

[CBR News]

Writers Ron Marz and Tim Seeley team up to discuss the building blocks of "Witchblade" with CBR, dealing with the cheesecake tag and building the Top Cow Universe while sharing exclusive pages from issue #150


Full article here.

[C. Earl]

Looking back over all of my comics for the past 20 years or so, I realized that I've been with Witchblade the longest of any of them, starting with issue #1. Sad to see Marz and Sejic go--to say they had one helluva run is an understatement--but I'm also excited to see where Seeley and Bernard take things next.

[sharebear]

"And then the other thing that I find interesting with her is she's a really hot girl, she could just model, she wouldn't have to be tough. Most women I know who are really attractive tend to be a little bit spoiled because they're so used to being treated differently and for some reason Sara isn't, so why is that? That's one of the things I'm going to play with."

That's not sexiest at all.

Barf.

[Deviancy]

That's not sexiest at all.

Barf.

If you want sexism, pick up a Frank Miller comic.

Sharing a personal experience that involves pretty girls that relied on their looks rather than intellect isn't sexist. Claiming pretty girls can only rely on their looks would be.

Do I need to draw you a "sexiest" diagram?

[timeismoney]

The thing is it is hard when your not the big two. But to be fair the big two change their characters over time look at Magneto before and look at him now that is character progression. I think Image and other company a cry babies when it come too DC and Marvel who mere present allow them to operate.

[eclecticmess]

"I think people bitch a lot more than they actually don't buy, so the people who complain about the sexuality stuff are still buying it, they're just trying to cover up the fact that they feel like creepy old men"


Nope. I most certainly will not be reading Seeley's Witchblade. Under Marz it was one of my favorite books, but I've heard Seeley's thoughts on Sara's sexuality and I've seen the preview art, and I know that this book is going in a direction that I can't respect and won't enjoy.

Sorry Top Cow. I'm out.

[timseeley]

I'm sure Ron Marz himself can tell you how disconcerting it is to have people judge your work as sexist without having read it. He went through it on "VOODOO" from DC, for daring to set a story in a strip club. He was judged by "fans" who hadn't bothered to do anything but look at the preview art.
It's not really my specialty to talk about projects I'm writing on conference calls in the morning, such as this particular interview. I gave it a go, but I'm obviously pretty scatterbrained before my morning chai tea latte. So, my apologies if my statements somehow offend you. Get me drunk on a podcast at night, and I do a much better job. All I ask is, please, judge me when the comic is actually out, not by your preconceived standards.
Sincerely,
TIM SEELEY

[abysslord]

All I ask is, please, judge me when the comic is actually out, not by your preconceived standards.
Sincerely,
TIM SEELEY

You're asking an awful lot there with the typical internet poster :)

I read the interview and agreed with pretty much everything you said. Besides, hopefully for every person that says "I'm done with Witchblade now" there will be someone who will pick it up, such as me. I've never read Witchblade and only know it in general, but I've been reading Artifacts and I am picking it up now solely because you're writing it.

I love Hack/Slash, and Occultist, and that's enough for me to buy whatever else you're writing. Looking forward to your run!

[Dark-Flux]

I'm a little concerned atm.

Ron Marz did such a great job on Witchblade and managed to drag it away from the stigma of it being just a "typical cheesecake bad-girl book of the 90's".
It would be a real shame if it were to regress back into that and parts of that interview make me sceptical.

Buuuuut I'm not normally one to judge before reading for myself. I'm definetly willing to try out the first arc at least.

Havnt really read any of Tim Seeleys work but I hear good things about Hack/Slash. And that preview of Bloodstrike was pretty sweet

[timseeley]

Well, there's a couple of problematic assumptions I see going around, which lead to some knee-jerk reactions.

The assumptions:
1. Sexy = Sexist.
2. A "sexy" comic book cannot be well written, focus on characterization, and be intelligent.
3. WITCHBLADE was at one time a poorly written comic that focused on "T & A" elements at the expense of character and story.


I say none of those assumptions are true.
Discuss.

TIM!

[Arvandor]

I love sexiness in comics.

Which is one reason I ended up dropping Marz' run. It tried too hard to decry the t&a moniker - protesting too much, as it were - and came across as seeming ashamed of its own past, and vaguely insulting to those who enjoyed earlier Witchblade comics.

A shame. I usually like Marz' work. But I'll definitely come back for Seeley.

[JessieMidnight]

Hey Tim, cool to see you taking over Witchblade. Marz, and Sejic had a great run. Sejic's art was crazy cool on the book.

Also, Tim any chance we'll get to see you do a art fill-in here or there sometime during your run?

[JakeJarmel]

When is this coming out? I've been waiting for what seems like months at this point. Thought it was supposed to be out already

[EMeadow]

First issue should be next week.

[drosera]

I love sexiness in comics.

Which is one reason I ended up dropping Marz' run. It tried too hard to decry the t&a moniker - protesting too much, as it were - and came across as seeming ashamed of its own past, and vaguely insulting to those who enjoyed earlier Witchblade comics.

A shame. I usually like Marz' work. But I'll definitely come back for Seeley.

I fully agree with your comment. I am currently ploughing my way through Marz/Sejic's run and i can't wait until issue 150 when it's over. I hate Sejic's art, he CANNOT draw a human character from the side, they look grotesque from this angle. His clothing textures are non-existent. It was a horrible shock going from Adriana Melo's lovely fitted tops and low-rise jeans for Dani and Sarah (early issue #100's) to Sejic's high-rise potato sacks he puts all the females in.

I love how Seeley makes no apologies for creating visually sexy characters, i hope this run continues for a while.